This is what I came away with.
I finally have the first Sparklehorse album on CD.
It's playing now in the aftermath of my having listened to all ten of my RSD albums.
This album Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot is amazing.
It's the music of a slow motion dream captured inside an ice cream box.
It's the soundtrack to being trapped in an abandoned refrigerator in an old junk yard.
It's the worn out poetry of carousel horses with grimaces frozen in time.
I just wasn't up to waking up at 4:00 am on Saturday morning for the early Record Store Day turnout. Well guess what. Turns out that Kyle told me folks began lining up for it the night before around 9pm. By the time the store closed there were easily a couple dozen people camped out to be first the next morning. On the way to Ogden Saturday morning we stopped in to the Graywhale there around 11:00am, and managed to snag a few good records that were still available, namely Pearl Jam's Live at Easy Street, David Bowie's The World of David Bowie on blue vinyl, Townes Van Zandt on brown colored vinyl, Gorillaz The Fall on forest green vinyl, Lou Reed's Ecstasy, an album of Jeff Buckley outtakes from his debut, Jethro Tull 10" North Sea Oil, and Van Morrison's 10" alternate Astral Weeks. I also scored the Halloween soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that was 'deleted'--a mix they hadn't got permission to use, apparently--on orange vinyl.
This live bootleg of Pearl Jam (featuring a half hour of their longer set) back in 2005 marks just about where they were at the one time I saw them live. It was in Las Vegas in 2006 with Sonic Youth. Shasta and I were on our way to Oakland to Nils's 40th birthday bash for a two-night live concert extravaganza headlined by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Pearl Jam were on fire for that show and in this concert they keep the action intimate and in-your-face, delivering a series of off kilter songs that make for a performance of great immediacy. They play a Dead Kennedy's cover off Plastic Surgery Disasters that you would never notice wasn't supposed to be one of their own songs ("Bleed For Me"), and during the set's highlight they cover X's mid-80s commercial breakthrough "The New World" with John Doe on guest vocals--a stellar version. I just listened to it and this easily qualifies as one of my best scores. A searing live performance which ends with a surprising rendition of Porch that takes the crowd unawares, I'd say. It's nice to see the band I've long thought of as ranging from punk to epic levels of rock and roll prove my musings to be true with this record. Pearl Jam being official ambassadors of Record Store Day, I thought I'd kick off with this #1 score on my list.
Shasta grabbed the Lou Reed Ecstasy reissue and handed it over to me, that's a no - brainer and the curious thing, besides the fact it never was released on vinyl outside Germany in the year 2000, but Ecstasy is one of the two Reed albums I never got (the other one being Set The Twilight Reeling). This one comes as an extraordinary bonus considering Lou left us five years ago, and this album really features the iconic singer digging deeply into these songs with his band, paying particular focus to the sound and power of the electric guitar. A dark and sometimes disturbing collection of songs, after listening to it just once I can tell I'm going to have to spend some more time with this.
photo by Stefan Sagmeister of Lou jerkin' it ~ image courtesy of Warner Bros.
This song hits me right in the feels
The next album I managed to snag was The Best of Townes Van Zandt. It's on Fat Possum Records and its a thing of beauty. Not only is it packaged in rustic brown paper gatefold, but the 2LP vinyls are die hard amber marblized and the collection of songs is stellar, covering a wide variety of his albums. I recorded Dax Riggs cover Lungs when he played in Ogden a few years ago. That song appears on this double gatefold collection, kind of bringing my catching up with this artist full circle.
I filmed this in Ogden a few years ago
I also scored these really cool 10" limited records: Jethro Tull and Van Morrison.
The above records are almost supernaturally incredible, in that they each evoke past time periods of my life that mean a lot to me. The album Stormwatch was a big underlying sound track to the days Greg Grub and I forged our legendary friendship, on late night excursions to the White Tower and battling the evil forces in the Witch Woods. The songs from that album served as backdrop on our wintry excursions and also featured in our Station 3 dj broadcasts. Listening to the instrumental ballad Elegy and understanding how it's transformed from a fiction to painful fact in the lives of the Grub Brothers evinces emotions almost too strong to bear. The album TB Sheets dates back to when Greg and I stayed with my Dad in Honduras one summer, I had it on cassette and we played it a lot.
The alternate takes on songs like Beside You and Madame George are really chill.
The alternate takes on songs like Beside You and Madame George are really chill.
Snatched The Fall by Gorillaz - It's dated as a 2010 release - not released in the US til now. Listened to it once through, and it's a pretty low -key and interesting sounding album, although not remarkably so. Maybe with more spins I'll get into it more. Glad I picked it up. That makes Demon Days + The Fall = my Gorillaz vinyl collexion
Nowhere I looked could I see the Bob Dylan New York test pressing of Blood on the Tracks nor any Tangerine Dream or Iggy & the Stooges records. But I looked and there was The World of David Bowie right in front of my eyes - I snatched it up, but quick. This super early era of Bowie's has always been my favorite, and this recording is on pale opaque blue vinyl.
(I wish it had Please, Mr. Gravedigger and The Laughing Gnome on it, but its got the songs I've been missing for some time now, and this really does come as close as I need to completing my db collection. Just as soon as the Spying Through a Keyhole 7" box set arrives, it will be complete.)
"Come and Buy my Toys", one of my favorites of the early Bowie tunes.
Went ahead and picked up this rare - outtakes collection from Jeff Buckley's first album sessions - "in transition" - - it's a nice group of songs -- here's the tracklisting:
A1. Mojo Pin (Takes 1&2)
A2. Unforgiven aka Last GoodbyeA3. Strawberry Street
A4. Je N’en Connais Pas La Fin
B1. Hallelujah
B2. If You Knew
B3. Satisfied Mind
Their first EP Black Smoke Rising
Which leads me to my final purchase - Greta Van Fleet's "From The Fires" - (their first two EPs packaged together as one LP) - - with 7,000 copies pressed, it enjoys the highest number of pressings of any of the RSD 2019 releases (one thousand more than the Pearl Jam Live album) which is saying something about these young cats from Michigan.
Look - - - I get it - - they sound like Zeppelin. Josh Kiszka's vocals come uncannily close to a young Robert Plant -- it's all over this record -- and I get it: that don't stand right with some folk's sense of aesthetics. No prob. Skip 'em - - and go on with your bad selves. There's a whole world of music out there. Who needs another Zeppelin - right? Bands like this are a dime a dozen... Wolfmother, etc. But there's something going on with these guys that catches my ear, nonetheless. I made my decision: considering the initial pressings of these EPs (and maybe this one as well, I'm not sure) have all Sold Out -- I decided, what better way to truly listen to what this post-classic rock band has to offer, than to spin the black circle on my turntable? (The few songs I've checked out on YouTube sounded pretty decent, to my ears.)
For one, Kiszka's vocals, when they're not emulating Robert Plant's mannerisms, are possessed of a certain sprite-like quality that I can't quite put my finger on, but which nonetheless modulates on a level that reaches through to me. There's an original side to his voice that intrigues me--a way in which he emulates that I find refreshing and different. Meanwhile, his brothers (guitarist Jake and bass player Sam) really know how to kick out the jams, old school. It's not just Zeppelin these young dudes are channeling. I can hear some Deep Purple and even early Aerosmith in here. And not just purely derivative of those classic 70s bands, either. It sounds like they mean it.
So I spun the record after I got home, and I've gotta say, I enjoyed listening to it. The amount of shit these kids get for emulating their -- or should I say, our -- classic rock heroes is just ridiculous. At least there's a solid core audience for them out there that appreciate what they're doing -- to the point their records have gone out of print, already. I'm with the crowd that wants to allow them time to grow into themselves. They are so young, that I feel like giving them a chance to fill the shoes they've so boldly stepped into. I'd like to hear what they do on their follow up albums, myself.
"Greta Van Fleet," that's a pretty funny name for a band which seeks to ape classic rock, and at the same time, a perfectly suitable band name poised at this juncture of rock history. All I got to say to the guys in the band is, "Well played, my dudes. Well played." Rock ain't dead yet. And with young kids like these willing to go out on a limb and deliver hard blues rock in a classic vein, I for one am all ears, and am very interested in what their future has in store.
Albums I Did Not Score To My Everlasting Dismay
Bob Dylan "NY test pressing" of Blood on the Tracks
X-Ray Specs 2LP
Tangerine Dream (Poland and Machu Picchu)
Bill Hicks
John Lennon (Imagine Raw studio mixes)
Iggy & the Stooges (2LP live album Paris Hippodrome '77)
Pink Floyd (A Saucerful of Secrets MONO)
Robert Plant Fate of Nations
Ramones (Live at the Palladium)
Roxy Music ("Remixed" 2LP)
Serj Tankian Harakiri LP
RUSH Hemispheres picture disc
The Crow (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
I Know What You Did Last Summer (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
BONUS ALBUMS (not official RSD albums, but solid scores nonetheless)
This is the "DELETED" version - due to some copyright claim or another - - of the Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross version of the Halloween theme on pumpkin - orange 12" single vinyl. A bunch of these were recalled and supposed to be "destroyed," but thanks to some rebel record stores unwilling to comply with such ridiculous demands, I ended up with this sweet piece of orange candy in my hands.
Scored this as well - - Drivin N Cryin's '97 self-titled album, now given a new title and reissued on vinyl format for the first time. You can never go wrong with Drivin N Cryin -- my favorite southern rock band of all time.
And finally, I picked this used LP up, for old time's sake. Of course back when I owned every Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Yes, Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd album released at the time--back when I was in high school--I used to listen to this album and dug it very much. Released in November of 1979, it's one off the last albums from the 70s, squeaking by in the nick of time. It may not rank that high up on their best list (that's reserved for their first six studio albums) but there are plenty of good songs on here, nonetheless.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. I also picked up "Switched-on Bach II, by Walter Carlos", for $5 from the used bins. Having stumbled on his A Clockwork Orange soundtrack last week on YouTube, I couldn't resist getting it. With this stack o' wax next to my turntable, it'll be some time before I can afford to buy any more records. For now, I am tapped out.
p.s.
My RSD 2019 plan was to arrive at 5:00 am sharp -- three hours before the record store opened at 8 am -- but I just didn't have it in me to do that, and it turns out that on our drive to Ogden that Saturday, we made a pit stop at the Ogden Graywhale around 11:00 am --
just three hours after the doors opened.
That's the reason I didn't end up with the Dylan or Floyd records, but did manage to get lucky and score the Lou Reed and David Bowie albums, as well as the Townes Van Zandt record.
Reminder! Kyle, the manager at the Taylorsville Graywhale (now only one of three Graywhales in Utah: Sandy, SLC, and Ogden) informed me that people began lining up for RSD the evening before around 9:00 pm! By the time their store closed later that evening, there were at least two dozen people lined up to camp out for the night. So my old strategy (which worked fine up until last year) of showing up a mere "three hours early" ain't gonna cut it any longer, folks. If you want to be among the first ten in line (often necessary in order to score those rare RSD-Only pressings that fly out the door within minutes) you are going to have to show up the night before, nowadays. Unless you live in some podunk town where nobody really bothers to show up early, I suppose. I wonder if anyone showed up the night prior in Ogden? I have no idea, but considering the proliferation of hipsters out there these days, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. Happy record hunting, everyone.
~ Thorns out.
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